The First Panel of the (Supreme Federal Court) formed a majority this Thursday (4) to convict five former members of the leadership of the Military Police of the Federal District on January 8, 2023.
The rapporteur, , and ministers Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin voted in this sense. Minister Cármen Lúcia still needs to vote.
The trial began on the 28th, in a virtual court session (the platform on which ministers cast their votes), and ends this Friday (5). Former members of the PM leadership deny the accusations of omission.
Moraes considered that the military committed the crimes of attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage to the Union’s property and deterioration of listed property.
He proposed sentences of 16 years for the defendants, which includes 13 years and six months in prison, two years and six months in detention, a 100-day fine (each day a fine worth one third of the minimum wage) and the loss of public office.
The minister states that these crimes were committed by the then commander-general of the PM-DF Fábio Augusto Vieira, the former deputy commander-general Klepter Rosa and three colonels (Jorge Eduardo Barreto Naime, Paulo José Ferreira de Sousa Bezerra and Marcelo Casimiro Vasconcelos).
He voted to acquit two soldiers who were also denounced by the (Attorney General’s Office), Major Flávio Silvestre de Alencar and Lieutenant Rafael Pereira Martins.
According to the PGR, despite having the means to prevent attacks and vandalism in Praça dos Três Poderes, the PM-DF leadership failed to act. The seven defendants are on provisional release and wear electronic ankle bracelets.
In his vote, Moraes stated that the military adhered to criminal purposes aimed at an attempt at institutional rupture, which would lead to the abolition of the democratic rule of law and the deposition of the legitimately elected government.
“It is also worth highlighting that the criminal horde of the coup had been operating since the announcement of the results of the 2022 general elections, in an organized attempt that escalated into violence until culminating in the regrettable episode at the beginning of January this year,” he said.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the police subjectively joined the criminal actions of the coup plotters who vandalized the headquarters of the three Powers, instead of acting to prevent the destruction of public buildings.
The complaint also stated that the PM-DF had informants or police officers infiltrated in the popular insurgency movements, including in the camps in front of the Army headquarters, who provided the officers with frequent information and images, highlighting the need for preventive action to prevent criminal acts.
When voting, Cristiano Zanin said that he was originally going to suggest a lesser sentence, but “in consideration of the principle of collegiality and the other manifestations I have already expressed on other occasions”, Moraes’ vote will follow.
In a note after the formation of the majority, Colonel Bezerra’s lawyers expressed “absolute non-compliance with the conviction imposed by the Federal Supreme Court” and said that he is “the only defendant in the case who, as expressly recognized by the rapporteur himself, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, does not have any proof or indication of party-political alignment with former president Jair Bolsonaro”.
“In a criminal case of such seriousness, the conviction of a state employee with 30 years of service without a single blemish in his career requires unequivocal proof of the subjective element of this type. This proof simply does not exist,” said lawyers Nilson José Franco Júnior, Alexandre Peralta Collares and Claudia Cozer, who represent the colonel.
